Question and Answer
THE CHILD
Father! Within the forest's boundNo bird I found,No sound of song the woods around.
THE FATHER
The bird that glad his song us gave,Flies o'er the wave;Perhaps he there will find his grave.
THE CHILD
But why does he not wait till later?
THE FATHER
He goes where light and warmth are greater
THE CHILD
Father! It selfish seems to me,Far off to flee,When all we others here must be.
THE FATHER
With new-born spring comes new-born song;By instinct strongThe better new he'll bring erelong.
THE CHILD
But if in death the cold waves swallow--?
THE FATHER
Others will come; his kin will follow.
Words in this poem
- erelong adv.
- Before the ere long.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Question and Answer is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, the Arthur Hubbell Palmer translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Question and Answer, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/question-and-answer.html, id L29346.
Form and metre
Question and Answer is 24 lines in 16 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 AAA boundA · foundA · aroundA
- 4 AAA gaveA · waveA · graveA
- 10 AAA meA · fleeA · beA
- 12 AAA songA · strongA · erelongA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THE CHILD | 2 | ·· |
| Father! Within the forest's bound | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| No bird I found, | 4 | ···· |
| No sound of song the woods around. | 8 | ········ |
| THE FATHER | 3 | ·/˘ |
| The bird that glad his song us gave, | 8 | ········ |
| Flies o'er the wave; | 4 | ···· |
| Perhaps he there will find his grave. | 8 | ˘/······ |
| THE CHILD | 2 | ·· |
| But why does he not wait till later? | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| THE FATHER | 3 | ·/˘ |
| He goes where light and warmth are greater | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| THE CHILD | 2 | ·· |
| Father! It selfish seems to me, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Far off to flee, | 4 | ···· |
| When all we others here must be. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| THE FATHER | 3 | ·/˘ |
| With new-born spring comes new-born song; | 8 | ········ |
| By instinct strong | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The better new he'll bring erelong. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| THE CHILD | 2 | ·· |
| But if in death the cold waves swallow--? | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| THE FATHER | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Others will come; his kin will follow. | 9 | /˘·····/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.